Boeing to announce 777X production site in early 2014

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2009 file photo, the Boeing 777 line is shown at Boeing Co.'s airplane assembly plant in Everett, Wash. Boeing Co. on Thursday, May 7, 2009 reported a sharp drop in orders for its commercial jetliners in April, as the troubled global economy continued to hurt demand from airlines and cargo services. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

With anticipation growing about where Boeing will build its new 777X wide-body airliner, the company’s top executive said Monday that a decision will be announced early next year.

A day after Boeing announced record-setting orders worth $100 billion for the 777X from Arab carriers, Jim McNerney, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said at the Dubai Airshow that the aerospace giant will release “very specific plans” for building the plane in “two to three months,” according to an article Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

The plans would include final assembly, production of the fuselage and wings as well as certain fabrication work, the Journal said.

“We have a number of alternatives,” the article quoted McNerney as saying.

The location of Boeing’s planned 777X seemed all but decided until last week when members of the company’s machinists union in the company’s traditional manufacturing hub, Puget Sound, Wash., soundly rejected a contract offer that would have severely curtailed employee benefits.

After the surprise vote, Boeing said it would consider “all options” in deciding where to build the plane and its advanced composite wings.

One possible site mentioned by aerospace observers is Boeing’s C-17 military airlifter plant in Long Beach. That facility is scheduled to close in 2015 from lack of orders, two years before the 777X is set to start production.

Delivery of the first 777X is expected for 2020.

Puget Sound is still considered the odds-on favorite to land the new plane, especially since the aircraft’s predecessor, the 777, is built there. Boeing has not ruled out building the 777X in Washington, but insists that would require a new union contract that makes economic sense for the company.

Other possible sites for 777X production include South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Alabama. There is also speculation that Boeing may build the 777X composite wings in Japan. That is where the composite wings for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner are made.